The Key to Your Heart
by cathalsey
Summary: Fang is looking for the key that ends civilization. The key is life or death, depending on the hand that turns it.The scrolls read of the key residing in a fair maiden. Max is not a fair maiden, more like a dramatic best friend. Maybe they're the same...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hey, hey.**

**Yeah, yeah I promised I wouldn't be on here, but I wanted feedback on my story. Warning: The original characters were not Max and Fang, so if they seem a little OOC, it's because of that. But they're pretty similar.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except my OC's. I love my OC's. :)**

* * *

><p>Prologue<p>

I watched as the leaves blew from the tree falling oh so delicately onto the ground so far below, as if in another universe, and threatened to rip away the last of my life I had ever known.

I stood, on the brink of escape and life, of torture and bliss, of ignorance and reality; of life and death.

With arms raised, I hesitantly took a stumble forward.

And

Fell

To

My

Impending

Doom.

* * *

><p>MPOV<p>

"Did you get the stuff?" I asked, not daring to look up from our dinner until I was sure he had confirmed what we need so very much, for if I saw the tiniest bit of guilt of failure, I would snap. More accurately, I would snap _him_ like a twig.

"Why, Max, I never knew you were one to ask for 'stuff'", he retorted practically shoving that smirk he was most definitely wearing on his face into his irritating words.

He tossed a worn burlap sack onto the dirt directly in front of where I sat "crisscross-applesauce" and I finally snuck a glance at my annoying dork of a partner, my eyes screaming gratefulness for the supplies but a hint of irritation for not giving me an excuse to kill him.

Damn it, I _really _wanted to kill him.

"Max, will you lay off the glare for a bit, I want to eat in freaking peace." he merely responded not even bothering to flick a look my way and nonchalantly grabbing a piece of fried whatever-it-was for dinner today and shoving it in his mouth like a teenage pig.

I rolled my eyes and shoved him, using the surprise attack to barbarically snatch the piece of meat (hopefully it was meat, I was starving) and tear off the flesh with my own sharp teeth before he could retaliate.

"Did I not just say I wanted to _eat?_" he said his mouth open wide as if he couldn't believe what I had just done. I guess to teenage guys food and girls with no moral values were of the utmost importance to them. I messing with one of the two treasured items was just an unspeakable crime.

You would've thought that after years of being acquainted he would have realized that I didn't care.

"Fang," I began mimicking his tone, and tilting my head to the side causing my blonde hair to fall not so elegantly in my face, "did you not just witness these past few years of our life that I really don't give a bird's poop to what you want?"

Fang just glared at me with those deep black eyes, and I smirked back, my daily quota of irking my best friend fulfilled.

As Fang made to close his pudgy fingers (not really, his fingers were long and lean much like him. Apparently they were "artist" fingers. Imagine my shock when I figured out the idiot could draw…) around one of the several remaining pieces of dinner, a long beep that sounded much like a car horn emitted from somewhere across the dark street where we were camped out.

Immediately our eyes met, and I nodded preparing to execute the single most important line I would ever say in my life (or maybe I mean day) with poise and the right amount of hard-heartedness.

"It's go time."

With that, I grabbed the burlap sack, shoved the unidentified meat into my back pocket (it would still be edible) and ran out of the area with a tired, rowdy, yet determined expression on my face.

Fang simply put out the meager fire that had taken me over an hour to start (I ended up using matches…) and followed silently behind me like the faithful sidekick he was, muttering something about how cliché I was and that I was a drama queen.

Silly boy, didn't he know that I was already occupied as one of those bad secret agents and couldn't possibly be a queen for I was way too awesome to ever be accepted into a kingdom?

Boy has a lot to learn.

"Now Fang, I understand you're just a rookie," I said flipping my dirty-blonde, medium length hair behind my shoulder and walking straight ahead, expecting the black-eyed boy to listen to my inspiring and surely life-changing speech, "but since you're the only agent available today, let me make this clear. Today's mission will involve a lot of death, destruction, and blowing up. Many valiant and innocent people will die today. You will feel grief and guilt. But that's part of the job! Normally it takes people about a year or so to overcome their emotions and become one with the force, er, task, but since I was a special case and was promoted to leader within a mere matter of months, it is possible that you may be able to prove your worth as well. Of course I had looks and- "

"Max. I don't understand what's so hard about crashing a teenage party without telling our parents about it. It's hardly a mission, let alone one that needs such a climatic build-up.", he interrupted, and quite rudely I may add, while blindly following me like the light that brightens every inch of his life and texting away on his phone.

"Faaaannnggg," I whined, kicking his shins. "You weren't supposed to talk about it! Remember, that's why we set up a camp and all that and why we're eating KFC on dirt pretending that it's like animal meat or something, and that's why we have a burlap sack. It's also why I'm dressed in all black and you are too. You were supposed to keep up the pretense of the super duper secret agent act! Thanks a lot Tallers. You know what? You're fired from your freaking job. That's right soldier you're going home." I ended, my disappointment turning to annoyance, what else is new really, and folding my arms across my chest.

With an audible "Harrumph" and another kick in his shin, I stalked away, angered by the fact he couldn't even play along.

"Max.", I heard him say, his voice apologetic.

"Uh, uh. I'm not talking to you Fang." I retorted, marching ahead, the huge mansion filled with bright unnatural lights at eleven P.M looming closer ahead.

"Max."

"Nuh-uh."

"Max?" he tacked, trying for a sweeter tone.

I just kept silent.

"No offense Max but don't you think we're being a little immature for teenagers of sixteen years of age?"

I spun around, my eyes wide at his atrocity for speaking such words.

"How. Dare. You? " I whispered dramatically, on the verge of emitting an ear-piercing shriek.

Hey, he was the one who planned how to steal an ice-cream from the ice-cream truck for free for a month before I just walked up and bought one for him.

He just grinned, punching me on the shoulder. "I knew that'd get your attention. I didn't need to do that of course, since you were undoubtedly falling for my sexy voice anyway."

… Idiot.

Usually in time of desperation when I'm so shocked I have nothing to say, I have two natural approaches.

1. I speak my mind.

2. I fill up the space with random comments that are usually insulting to the person in question.

Today, I felt more like a number two and didn't really have anything on my mind this late at night. I mean who has a party at eleven you know?

"Fang, I know that America allows any person to live here no matter how ugly they are, but you're totally abusing the privilege." I stated, matter-of-fact.

"Max, just because you need to fill up random space does not mean that you can insult me and my undoubted beauty."

"You wish you had beauty." I retorted, keeping my amusement that he had figured out the point behind the comment on the down-low. I couldn't let him know that he actually amused me could I?

"That's the best you could do?" he scoffed.

"That's what she said!" I sang, clapping my hands together gleefully and throwing my head back to emit weird sounds of laughter when the _thing_ that was walking side by side with me slapped his forehead with gusto.

"Even your laugh is weird Max."

"Do you really want to start this again Fangy boy?"

"… Have I told you how much I hate you?"

"I love you too m' darling."

"Well I don't."

"Don't deny your undying passion for me. No one can resist the beauty that is Maximum Ride." I exclaimed holding my head up high.

Fang just shook his head and sighed. "I give up. You're just too full of yourself."

"Well of course I'm filled with myself stupid; I'm not going to be filled with you. Gosh grow some brains will ya?"

He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Doesn't even understand a goddamn figure of speech… worse than mother… my KFC…"

Times like these make my life worth living.

I just grinned and ran the rest of the short distance to the door of the house, nay mansion.

Heck, even the word mansion is a disgrace to the size of the place.

"Holy Lard, this place could fit a herd of elephants jacked up on tuna, the entire car museum down the street, the Playboy mansion, the white house residents, _and _the large-ass supply of food we have down at my house." Fang gasped, staring at awe.

"Don't forget the whipped cream." I whispered, suddenly getting the butterflies. Damn butterflies, fluttering around my stomach. Don't they know home is, like, in a green meadow next to a garden of flowers or whatever?

He simply nodded in response and we both shared a look of anticipation and excitement.

"Ready soldier?" I asked, trying to save the pretense of our mission.

"Ready Ma'am." He responded and then he reached his long idiot artist fingers across me and rang the doorbell.

And chaos exploded likes bacon bits after shoving them into the blender.

Just kidding! No one actually answered the freaking door because the music was so loud that you could hear the bass from the street over.

The only reason Fang and my ears weren't bleeding to their death was because we were such avid music listeners and chose to turn the volume on our headphones so high that it could actually rival the Bose sound system.

Supposedly you could go deaf or something, but that's just a_ warning._

I rolled my eyes at Fang and just slammed the door open and stood there in the doorway with my arms spread out and a grin on my face, expecting the surely drunk party-goers to stare at my dramatic and flawless entrance.

They didn't bat an eye.

"Max, you need to stop being such an actress." Fang said ducking underneath my arm so he could enter the hallway, which, by the way, was as big as my house alone.

I'm scared to see the bedroom, and not just because it's filled with some particularly _excited_ teens either.

Shoving my way past the quite disgusting manner of the crowd and ignoring Fang's snarky comment, I almost shrieked in frustration at the possibility of having only Fang's face to stare at throughout the whole mission, since I couldn't find any one of my other dearly beloved friends.

And yes, I _did_ have friends and only _one_ of them was imaginary.

I huffed, angrily tapping my toes and crossing my arms across my chest, I barely noticed the appearance of a certain black-haired idiot appear next to me.

Yes, he was black-haired and dressed in all black all the time. And yes, I relentlessly teased him about it all the time. Society says we shouldn't stereotype like that, but society was also the one that decided that Justin Bieber was the new Romeo. Would you trust anyone who was stupid enough to think that? I think not.

"You look beyond pissed, but when are you not?" Fang whispered into my ear, startling me from my reverie.

"Gosh darn it Fang, I was in a good day dream!" I scowled, punching him on the arm, and scowled deeper when I realized the blow to his arm wasn't strong enough to knock the drink he was holding in his hand.

It was only soda; we weren't stupid enough like the rest of the teenage population to risk our health.

That and we were totally _dead_ if our parents found out.

Fang took a step back and grinned, the gesture not unusual to his face. He was quite the optimistic person, much to my dismay because I was very much the pessimist.

"We're such opposites," I said amused, voicing my thoughts out to no one in particular; it made me feel as if I was a darn genius. "I mean you're all gung-ho and I'm all chill, and you're weird and I'm cool, you're quiet, I'm loud, you're ugly, I'm hot… It's as unlikely for us to be friends as if the Europeans were acquainted with the French."

Fang looked at me with a stare that screamed _you're not serious are you? _Which, personally I didn't get.

I mean it was a very dignified speech I just uttered back there.

"Honey, the French live in Europe." A girly voice that I was totally accustomed to said behind me suddenly, interrupting Fang and I's stare-down.

I jumped about a mile in the air and placed a hand over my heart. "Alex!" I began dramatically, earning rolled eyes from the short brown haired girl in front of me and an exasperated sigh from Fang, " My poor, undeveloped heart! I'm afraid your unexpected presence took away the last of my breath, the last beating of my heart! Alas! I must die! Hopefully you will not live with too much guilt of your murder, and I will try my hardest to not haunt you after my journey to the Underworld, but ghosts are just so very hard to control nowadays! No sense of discipline whatsoever, ah where was I? Yes, my death-"

"If you're going to die can you get it over with? I want the red convertible from your will already." Fang interrupted.

I narrowed my eyes, shooting daggers at him; unfortunately he was so used to my death glares that he was able to ignore them.

"_No one_ interrupts my speeches. And sure as hell not two times in a day. HEADS WILL ROLL." I shrieked menacingly (is that even possible?) earning a flinch from Alex.

"Maybe you should start running?" Alex suggested, whispering _totally _conspicuously to the boy with the lack of common sense. And table manners. Have you seen him when we have bacon for breakfast at my house?

Fang scoffed. "Run from this girl? She's the one who takes forever in the morning when I'm waiting to drive her to school, and ends up sauntering out the door wearing a sweatshirt and jeans."

Debating over whether I should hit him harshly for his comment on my clothes or the fact that I sauntered out the door to his beat up car every morning, I was just about to swing, when I noticed Fang had turned his attention elsewhere.

_Rude._

But I was shocked to see his face turn pale-white, and his eyes widen, exposing the feverent anger and rage that so quickly took over his body, causing every limb to shake. He was, to sum up, quite scary.

I had never seen him like this before, save the time when I convinced the student body he peed in his pants, and we'd been friends since birth.

His fists clenched and unclenched by his side and his breathing was deep and ragged. Following his eye's direction where his gaze was probably penetrating the object with laser-like accuracy, I settled upon Jimmy, Alex's ex-boyfriend who was really quite a sweetheart, when he wasn't obsessing over his football skills that is.

" He isn't supposed to be here." He hissed under his breath, not aware that I could hear.

"Who?" Alex asked totally oblivious to the fact that Fang was experiencing some sort of mood swing or guy form of PMS right now.

He snapped his head to our direction and his gaze softened considerably when he became aware that Alex and I were with him. "Nothing. "He muttered too quickly and too softly for me to believe him.

Another tip that something was seriously off was what happened right after.

He looked straight into my eyes, and spoke calmly, but I could detect the undercurrent of, was it fear?, in his voice that was so familiar to mine. "Hey, Max, I got a text from Ma, and I got to go home before she figures out we aren't actually at the carnival all right? And if she does find out… then that'll probably explain my absence for the next few days." "If she finds out that is." He tacked on hastily, almost as if he was trying to cover something up…

"What? Fang! You can't leave me here, we were on a mission!" I trailed off when I saw him anxiously leave the hall.

"Well that was weird." Alex said, trying to clue in on what was going on by looking expectantly into my eyes. I shrugged in response.

I knew as much as the next person. This annoyed me. I mean if we were best friends, practically siblings, then didn't I deserve to know what was going on?

My thoughts were filled with his hast exit, the shocking hatred toward a sweet, if not obnoxious at most, guy. He usually left with me and never without his intricate handshake with Alex.

Something was dead wrong. And I was determined to find out what was going on.

Oh lord. My life is a cliché movie.

* * *

><p><strong>AN How do you like so far? If the characters seemed a little off, it's because it's an original story that I'm formatting to fanfic. Voice your opinions in a marvelous review! And I'm open to any direction you want this story to go!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey hey. Nobody likes excuses.**

**Thanks so much to my four reviewers: MPHknows, Tastethegothynerd, bluegreypurple, and an unknown reviewer. You guys really got me up off my butt. :)**

**Thanks also to the 5 story alerts and 2 favorites. You're awesome. :)**

* * *

><p><strong>MPOV<strong>

"I am going to decapitate him, use his head as a mount for our television and proceed to shove the rest of his body in a vat of acid so strong that even Lily, who lives in the next neighborhood down, will have her dinner smell of the chemicals emitting from the edible substances." I growled, my fingers tightly gripping the table in front of me.

Alex, her brown spiky hair sticking up as if it had been electrocuted (which was muy cool by the way), was the ever serious one, not knowing when I was sarcastic or dramatic (heh, _all_ the time).

So it was no surprise when she answered oh so practically by saying, "But you'll end up in jail Max!"

And it was no shock when I rolled my eyes and slunk down in my cheap funded school chair.

It was fifth freaking period and he _still _didn't send me a single note or, what is now modern, a text.

This called for extreme measures.

I was going Secret Agent Max mode.

"Excuse me teacher!" I sang in a falsely sweet voice, waving my hand back and forth like the idiot that sat next to me in first period. Just the effort to produce such a girly voice to my lips was nauseating.

"Yes?" She spoke sharply, turning to face me, looking quite irritated that I had disrupted her _interesting_ lecture about how to identify animals from their feces.

What that had to do with balancing chemical equations I didn't know.

"I, um," I began, twirling my hair like those flirtatious girls always do in the movies. Apparently Secret Agent Max wanted to be a Barbie Girl today.

I needed to have a serious talk…with myself?

"Um, yeah, I was just wondering if, I could, like, use, like, the restroom?" I was about to chew on my gum for a certain emphasis, and realized I didn't have any. Darn.

The teacher sighed as if I was just making her life even more miserable and demeaning by asking a question that I was entitled to ask.

"Yes, yes. Just hurry back. After all I could _never_ continue this lecture without you."

Whoa. My teacher's got some _snark._

"Uh, yeah, like thanks." I uttered with just a hint of an "OMG-I can't- believe-I-talked-to-you" tone.

I then scurried down the hallway, running and ducking behind gum-filled columns and filthy, overflowing garbage cans.

After five minutes of overly exaggerated spy-moves and dozens of weird looks from couples making out, I reached the high, pointed, intimidating fence.

No one had ever dared to ditch school and hop the fence for doing so was equivalent of hopping the border or stealing a baby's lollipop.

Cutting class also resulted in a phone call home to your parents and a detention.

My parents were the type to bury me alive if I ever got into trouble at school. Although, being buried alive could save me a lot of stress…

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and tried desperately to jam my toes inside the little holes that fences so conveniently create. With great effort and almost fifteen minutes of whining and cursing, I was, wait for it, a grand total of 2-inches off the ground.

With a despairing wail, I tried even harder to use my body strength to pull myself further up, but the pointy tips hurt my hands.

And if you're sitting there laughing at my predicament, you've obviously never felt the pricks of metal on your palms.

They leave _indentations_.

Just as I was about to give up, I heard loud, amused laughter coming behind me.

"Need some help Max?" Iggy asked, no doubt swishing his blonde, surfer-looking hair to cover his smile.

Ah Iggy. Such an surfer-looking, troubled kid. I remember when Fang and I decided to let him join our group of tomfooleries. He was quite helpful in many areas of expertise, and learned from Fang, Alex, and I quickly.

Which also meant that the former two taught him how to annoy the pudding out of me. (And I eat a lot of pudding.)

"Do I need help? Do I need HELP? Have you no knowledge of what I have accomplished knave? I climbed the Great Wall of China with one hand, I went over the Niagara Falls in a bucket fit for SpongeBob, and I fought alongside the ponies when we took over our righteous land of the rainbows." I ranted, all the while losing grip on the edge, and scared that I was going to fall the two inches down to the concrete pavement.

"So you need help?" Iggy asked, his voice suppressing the sigh that usually followed after one of my fits.

"Yes, please." I whispered.

Now he really did sigh, and I heard him walking over to where I was hanging on, and he used his surprisingly strong upper body strength (psh, I wasn't jealous, no..) to lift me up just high enough so I could swing my leg over one side of the fence.

Then he let go.

"AGGGHHH, ZOMG, ZOMG. WHAT DO I DO, WHAT DO I DO?"I shrieked like a banshee, terrified at being so high up without anyone to break my fall.

Looking down I saw Iggy roll his eyes and calmly respond, "Jump idiot, jump."

I almost fainted at such a prospect, but if I was to discover what was going on with my progressively weirder best friend, I had no choice.

I closed my eyes, gripped the fence tighter, counted to three, and jumped.

"WHOA." I exclaimed as I dropped the few feet down to the pavement, and felt the vibrations echo in my long legs.

Looking around I caught Iggy's bright blue eyes and I grinned like a retard at my newly acquired skill. I voiced this development out loud.

"Iggy! I can climb fences now! Now I can climb Angel's fence and t.p her house, even though she's done nothing to me, and I can climb the mall's fence and play in the fountain _after hours!_" With this I gave a final whoop and pumped my arms and ran down the street in pursuit of my black-haired,black-eyed, idiot.

In the background I heard low laughter and Iggy's voice saying, "There goes the face of crazy."

'Tis true, 'tis true.

FPOV

"But sir!" I exclaimed, ready to pull out my hair in frustration.

"No but's. You find this key, or all is lost." Captain Larose stated, looking to me with a glare that screamed seriousness.

"Fang has a point sir." A voice of a newcomer dared to utter.

"Hmm? And what might this point be?" the Captain asked, feigning interest.

"Someone's gonna die." Jake, one of the seniors of the group, sing-songed in a whisper. The rest of the group sniggered quietly, waiting patiently for the show to unfold.

"Well," the rookie began, his eyes ignorantly lighting up at the Captain's supposed leniency, " If we steal the keys now, then there's no way of securing the definitive members of the opposite group. Also a battle right now would exhaust our supplies and leave us insuitable for the upcoming war. Finally, we don't even have sturdy evidence that the keys actually reside in such an area." The rookie gleamed upon delivering his well- delivered speech.

Shame that it was his last one.

Captain Larose rubbed his fingers on his chin; contemplating. Then, continuing with the expert act, he suddenly turned to me and exclaimed, "You! You were the idealist for this point. What say you? Bare or paint?"

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the sick feeling rising in my stomach. Jake whispered in my ear, " If you don't choose paint man, I will paint you."

I smirked at the empty threat and holding up the charade replied nonchalantly, " Why not bare Larose? It was time to test his strength anyway."

Grinning , the captain answered, " Very well, proceed."

The rookie looked on with confusion. Hesitantly raising a hand he asked, "Are we talking about interior decoration?"

The group was in an uproar.

Forcing my mouth into a menacing grin which turned my whole body sick with self-disappointment, I was the only one who remained tranquil enough to act.

Pouncing like a panther across the diagonal distance of the table, I brought out my hands arranged in fists and pounded them across every inch of his body. He attempted to fight back, and slightly grazed my chin with his "honorary" ring, but he was soon beaten up by my _bare_ fists.

Within a minute he was dead.

Brushing off the dirt from the ground and the wood from the splintered chair, I calmly made my way back to the seat.

"Well done. Though perhaps a bit sooner next time, hmm? Anyhow, the plan will continue as planned. Jimmy will be brought alive, and whoever captures him first will have the honor of torturing him, understand? Civilians may be harmed, they just stand in the way anyway. Hopefully, we'll be one step closer to locating the queen's heart. Then we can finally destroy it." The captain drifted off into space as he finished.

His gaze refocused onto me and I immediately sat a little straighter. No need to die so soon.

"Dismissed." He hissed, obviously angered at something I had done.

As we left the dusty house I sighed and complained to Derek, one of the saner people in this recruitment. "What now?"

Derek pounded my back reassuringly. " He just zones out like that dude. Don't worry. Everyone knows this mission wouldn't be possible without you. And then way you took out that big-mouth kid? Genius. Took me four years to fight like that." His voice had changed into that of awe.

"Yeah?"I began, running my hand tiredly through my hair, and dreading the call I'd have to make to Max right now to explain my absence, "It took me sixteen."

And then we fell backwards, blown away by a powerful presence and cloudy smoke filling the congested hall.

* * *

><p><strong>AN I know it's shorter, but I wanted to get the plot moving. Sorry for the long space between updates.**

**Comments, questions, suggestions? Leave them in a wonderful review!**


End file.
